Michael Wei takes on Josh Githens as fellow Blue Devils Amanda Yu and Misha Lavrov check out the gaming at their first WBC.	Eric Engelmann vs Dave Pack in the qualifying rounds as the Monday event got underway with a large turnout.

San Juan enjoyed its highest attendance numbers since it's inaugral year. After years of steady numbers in the 40s, we made it to 74 and made the Century for 2010. In 2010, we made "the century" in attendance as well, coming in at 102 players!

Once again, there was a fairly large crowd at the demo, proving that a game does not have to be new to draw people interested in learning how to play. While many veteran players prefer to play other experienced players in the "skill" games, an "A" rating soon becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy beckoning declining attendance while GMs who welcome new players with a demo have a better chance of keeping their events around by putting out the welcome mat. San Juan is not difficult to learn, so several people learned the game an hour before they were playing in the tournament. Many of them even won some games.

As in previous years, there were four rounds and you had to win three times to advance to the elimination bracket. As usual, if you won your first three games, you got to take a lunch break. If not, you played the fourth round, hoping to squeeze in. When all was said and done, a whopping 30 players advanced to the elimination rounds.

As everyone was made aware, Tom Browne had won the last two years in a row. An impressive feat, but one that we wanted to prevent from happening again. And so, thanks to "button master" Greg Schmittgens, we had lots of buttons made up with Tom's face with a circle and a line through it. Tom got the lone button with his face and a bullseye on it. Everyone was instructed that if they knocked Tom out of the tournament, they got his button. If he knocked another player out, he got your button. Tom was a great sport and challenged everyone to "come and get him, if they could". Nothing was said about it distracting attention from the three Cabbies who had won in three of the previous four years before Tom spoiled our party. After collecting buttons of his own, Tom finally lost his to perennial finalist, Bruce Reiff. (Big shock, huh?)

The 30 finalists were whittled down to Reiff and Raphael Lehrer. After about three turns it was apparent Raphael was going to win. Bruce could not draw a decent card to save his life, and Raphael worked the purple building strategy to perfection on his way to a blowout win. Next year, we gotta have " Get Lehrer" buttons.

Marie Pack vs Mark Neale in one of 51 opening pairings.	Raphael Lehrer, my hero, denies the Bruce in the Final.